INEOS ethylene terminal to be fully operational in fouth quarter

07 September 2012 16:24[Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--The INEOS-owned ethylene terminal constructed in ?xml:namespace>Antwerp, Belgium, is now complete and will be fully operational in the fourth quarter of 2012, a company director said on Friday.

The 1m tonne/year facility will enable the Swiss-headquartered group to access ethylene from a huge range of sources, improving its cost position for the procurement of ethylene, according to Tom Crotty, director of INEOS with responsibility for corporate affairs and communications.

Crotty said the ethylene terminal will be commissioned for the next 3-4 months and he expects it to be fully operational in the fourth quarter. He expects that INEOS will use most of the capacity.

“We are significant net buyers of ethylene – our short is well in excess of 1m tonnes, so on that basis the terminal gives us a huge opportunity to bring ethylene into ARA [Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp] and therefore ontothe network. It’s like having an extra virtual cracker for us.”

He said a major advantage it gives INEOS, is the ability to be able to go out and source ethylene from a very large range of sources, making the company more competitive in terms of its ethylene procurement.

“It also gives us security for our downstream operations which are reliant on that ethylene. It’s avoiding the cost of not having product where you need it when you need it and that’s very hard to put a price on.”

He added: “Construction is finished and we’re in commissioning phase now. It will involve putting ethylene in to test the facility.”

Asked whether the terminal could be used by other companies, he said: “This has yet to be identified. We’d like to stay flexible on that.”

Plans for the facility were unveiled in July 2010. It will feed INEOS’s ethylene oxide (EO) plant in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, and link to Europe’s ARG (Aethylen Rohrleitungs Gesellschaft) pipeline.u

Crotty is also president of the European Petrochemicals Association and vice-president of trade group Plastics Europe.